Heat transfer to submerged surfaces in coarse-grained pressurized fluidized beds and fixed beds

This contribution reports on the theory underlying a uniform representation of heat transfer to submerged surfaces in fixed bed reactors and of gas convective part of heat transfer in fluidized beds with coarse-grained bulk solids and/or at elevated pressure. Based on an analysis of the pressure drop behaviour of fixed bed percolation at different gas pressures and with different bulk solids, a new dimensionless pressure drop parameter was developed. Fixed bed heat transfer data are very well correlated by this new dimensionless number. As soon as fluid throughput is in excess of minimum fluidization velocity, the pressure drop parameter transforms into the well-known Archimedes number. These two dimensionless numbers are connected by the condition of equilibrium for pressure drop and mass of practices in a fluidized bed. This equilibrium is fulfilled as soon as fluidization commences. Up to now, the Archimedes number has been generally accepted as the significant parameter, determining the gas convective part of heat transfer in fluidized beds; however, without any physical interpretation of this parameter. Introduction of the pressure drop number, which is consistent with the Archimedes number, reduces the heat transfer behaviour to pressure drop characteristics. The usefulness of this concept is proven by the comparison of experimental results and prediction.